A top scientist is backing the clean power technology set to make its debut on Teesside.

It involves injecting carbon dioxide - released from burning fossil fuels - into underground rocks out at sea.

The process would be used at a £550m "clean coal" power station, proposed to be built on Teesside by Progressive Energy.

Sir David King said "carbon capture" could be the only hope of staving off catastrophic climate change. He believes the world is taking huge risks by polluting the atmosphere with carbon dioxide at current rates.

And he warned that large developing nations such as China and India will inevitably want to burn their huge reserves of cheap coal with potentially devastating results.

He insists other countries must try to persuade them to capture the CO2 from their power stations and pump it into porous rocks, rather than having it released into the atmosphere.

Sir David said on BBC radio: "Take this across to China and India and it becomes in a way our only hope. Those countries will continue to use coal and this provides a mechanism for coal usage but at the same time storing the CO2."

The chief executive of Renew Tees Valley, Dermot Roddy, has already visited China to discuss the scientific advances behind the plans for the Teesside power station. The Chinese were so impressed that a team of delegates returned to the UK for two days to discuss it further with Dr Roddy and Progressive Energy.